Alkan - Le Festin d'Esope

Etude No. 12 Op. 39 "Le Festin d'Esope" (Aesop's Feast)

Quoted from Ronald Smith's 'Alkan, the Man, the Music': "For his final study [of Op. 39] Alkan chose the most succinct way of summarising his technical invention by displaying it in a classically strict set of twenty-five variations on an original theme. Traditionally, the work is thought to represent various animals from Aesop's fables. Raymond Lewenthal discerns 'all manner of creeping, crawling things' within its colourful pages...

Alkan not only displays every conceivable manner of treating his theme, from the obvious to the transcendant, but he juxtaposes the complete spectrum of emotions from the naive to profound... What makes Le festin a work of outstanding genius is the tight discipline that rivets such seemingly disparate elements together... but the work is far more than the sum of its brilliant detail. As it progresses one becomes increasingly aware of darker tensions locked beneath its glittering surface. They finally break through as Alkan mounts his massive coda. Granitic, it rises up to form a great wall of sound then quickly subsides allowing the piece to end darkly, enigmatically with laconic references to its opening bars (in the bass) and a mocking leap to the final inevitable slap."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• alkan
• liszt
• chopin

[2hyeok]

the hand tenique you use when playing this song is destroying the eiffel tower

[kingfire111]

@Simo2009BORO Hamelin has an Ipod?

[Rachmaninoffkid]

4:37

Yep. I squinted and then dropped my jaw. Those my friend are hemisemidemiquavars.

[Rachmaninoffkid]

There is nothing like a good piece that only mad geniuses can play.

[ProPianoHamburg]

There is NOTHING like Lewenthal's interpretation of this:

[I can't put in the link to it for some reason, but go to "Raymond Lewenthal talk on Alkan, part 3", posted by alkanliszt.]

[TheKyukun]

Alkan was the first MIDI player in the history

[DonFrankos]

It's that moment after about 1 hour of listening to classical piano music on youtube that I accidentally end up with an Alkan piece and can't help but thinking: 'f*ck'

this is so insanely virtuous and so well put together..I guess I'll end up with 'The Song of the Mad Woman on the Sea Shore' today, and then I'll just stop, and stare at my desk for about an hour or so.

By the way the performing artist must be Chuck Norris, considering the physical effort needed for playing this madness. I love it

[TheKyukun]

00:00

[PhoenixS4444]

@Tibtib220689 your mom :)

[Gfurs]

Like.